Team notes: Boys & Girls is back in the Garden for the second straight year and fourth time in five seasons. … Snapped 31-year title-less drought last March with 55-50 victory over Cardozo, its 12th title overall. … Coach Ruth Lovelace became first female to lead boys team to PSAL title in highest classification. … Bedford-Stuyvesant school is alma mater of legends Dwayne (Pearl) Washington, Connie Hawkins and Lenny Wilkens.

SCOUTING REPORT

(from league coach under condition of anonymity)

“They got five guys around the same size that do the same thing, so they’re hard to match up with. … They have shooters with Nichols and Mike Taylor back and the kid that comes off the bench Hemingway. … Everybody on their team plays their role well. …. They go to the bench, they got a few kids who come in and play well. Hemingway is probably the best sixth man in the city. … To beat them, you got to play great defense, get out to the shooters, box out. You have to attack them on defense, go down low. You have to capitalize on their lack of size. Lincoln has to take advantage of that.”

PLAYER CAPSULES

Antione Slaughter

Year: Senior

Position: Guard

Height: 5-6

Notes: Boys & Girls’ heart and soul, leader and co-captain. … In PSAL Class AA quarterfinal win over No. 7 South Shore, scored all 12 of his points in fourth quarter, leading Kangaroos back from 10-point deficit. … Arguably fastest guard in city, one of its smallest and intense on-ball defender.. … Second year starter, he averaged 12 points and nine assists during the regular season.

Lovelace’s take: “He’s real tough. He understands how the game should be played. He gets everybody involved and he’s a tremendous defender. He wants to win in the worst way, he’s gonna do whatever it takes. … I don’t want him against me, I definitely want him on my side.”

Mike Taylor

Year: Senior

Position: Guard

Height: 6-3

Notes: Three-year starter headed to Rutgers in the fall. … The Post’s Preseason All-City Player of the Year, he averaged 18 points and six rebounds per game this winter. … Was suspended six games by principal Bernard Gassaway for failing his first-period class, but returned in the PSAL Class AA semifinals and scored 10 points in 53-48 win over No. 3 Wings Academy. … Scored 25 points in ‘AA’ title game last March, a 55-50 win over Cardozo.

Lovelace’s take: “”I think Mike is the best player in the city, as far as his size, his strength, his shooting, how he approaches the game. He doesn’t force the game, he thinks the game. …. He wants it in the worst way. … [During his suspension], he stayed so positive in all of this, he stuck with it and got back on the court for us.”

Jeffland Neverson

Position: Forward

Year: Junior

Height: 6-5

Notes: One of most versatile talents in the city, can handle guards and forwards on defensive end, shoot from perimeter and thrive in paint. … Scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds per game during playoffs.

Lovelace’s take: “He’s one of our best defenders, he does a lot of little things that go unnoticed. … I tell Jeff all the time if he doesn’t play well we don’t win.”

Malik Nichols

Position: Forward

Year: Senior

Height: 6-6

Notes: Slick southpaw has signed with Hofstra. … Transferred from Hillcrest in Queens to Boys & Girls in September after family moved to Brooklyn. … Lost his mother, Jeannette, to an apparent heart attack Dec. 31 at the age of 46 but played two days later and had 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, added four steals and registered three blocks in a dramatic 62-61 non-league win over Imhotep Charter (Pa.), the two-time Philadelphia Public School champion. … Posted game-highs of 22 points and 12 rebounds in semifinal win over Wings Academy. … Offensive numbers have nearly doubled in playoffs, from eight points per game to 15.

Lovelace’s take: “Pick your poison with Malik, The kid has the total package. I said from the beginning of the year how special he is. He’s the best all-around player in [the PSAL]. He puts the ball on the floor, slashes to the basket, passes the ball, rebounds, dunks the ball, shoots the 3. … I know he’s gonna be playing extra hard because his mother was so special to him. He always tells me he wants to do it for her. That’s all he’s talked about in the last few weeks, getting to the Garden.”

Leroy (Truck) Fludd

Position: Forward

Year: Junior

Height: 6-5

Notes: Bruising forward thrives in paint against taller defenders. … Originally from Coney Island, left Grady after one year when told program was folding. … Starting to draw Division I interest, Has come into own this winter, averaging a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds during regular season.

Lovelace’s take: “Truck told me the day this is more than just a basketball game to him. … He’ll battle on the boards, he’ll defend, he’ll rebound, and he’ll do all the things we ask him to do.”

Lovelace’s take: “That’s only going to help, you have to get starters some rest. … [Teyvon] Myers isn’t afraid of anything. … Hemingway is without a doubt the best sixth man in the city. He could start for anybody else. I don’t worry about him, he’s bringing it.”

COACH

Only female coach of a boys ‘AA’ team, Lovelace has made the playoffs in each of her 18 seasons. This is her fourth trip to the Garden in the last five years.

She deserves credit for keeping the Kangaroos together when shorthanded and for having the nerve to put together such a daunting non-league schedule. Only thing harder than winning a city championship is defending it and Lovelace has her team one win away. Lovelace has her player’s respect – they will run through a wall for her. Nobody plays harder and with more intensity in the PSAL than Boys & Girls.